How the Mechanism of Dynamic Representation Affects Policy Change and Stability
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Simon Tobias Franzmann
Abstract
In politics, we often observe stasis when, at first sight, no reason exists for such policy blockades. In contrast., we sometimes see policy change when one would expect blockades resulting from veto points or countervailing majorities. How can we explain these contradictory results concerning policy stability? In order to solve this theoretical puzzle, we develop an agent-based model (ABM). We combine established models of veto player theory (Tsebelis 2002: Ganghof-Bräuninger 2006) with the findings of political sociology and party competition. By aggregating previous party-level findings, we show that dynamic representation (Stimson et. al. 1995) provides an additional mechanism that can explain these macro-level outcomes. Parties behaving responsively to their electorate do not automatically guarantee perfect responsivity on the party system level. Further, if opposition parties also fear punishment by the electorate for government inaction, the opposition behaves more accommodatingly than previous approaches have predicted.
© 2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Contents
- Explaining and Understanding by Answering ‘Why’ and ‘How’ Questions: A Programmatic Introduction to the Special Issue Social Mechanisms
- Part I. Explanatory and Analytical: Understanding the Contexts, Core, and Collective Outcomes of Action
- Social Mechanisms as Special Cases of Explanatory Sociology: Notes toward Systemizing and Expanding Mechanism-based Explanation within Sociology
- Social Mechanisms of Corruption: Analytical Sociology and Its Applicability to Corruption Research
- Neighbourhood Effects: Lost in Transition?
- Part II. Bridging the Gap with Quantitative Survey Research
- Social Mechanisms in Norm-relevant Situations: Explanations for Theft by Finding in High-cost, and Low-cost Situation
- Social Mechanisms and Empirical Research in the Field of Sociology of the Family: The Case of Separation and Divorce
- Contextualizing Cognitive Consonance by a Social Mechanisms Explanation: Moderators of Selective Exposure in Media Usage
- Part III. Experiments, Agent-Based Modeling, and Mixed Methods
- The Use of Field Experiments to Study Mechanisms of Discrimination
- Rational Laziness - When Time Is Limited, Supply Abundant, and Decisions Have to Be Made
- How the Mechanism of Dynamic Representation Affects Policy Change and Stability
- Opening the Black Box. How the Study of Social Mechanisms Can Benefit from the Use of Explanatory Mixed Methods
- A Methodological Outlook on Causal Identification and Empirical Methods for the Analysis of Social Mechanism
- Authors
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Contents
- Explaining and Understanding by Answering ‘Why’ and ‘How’ Questions: A Programmatic Introduction to the Special Issue Social Mechanisms
- Part I. Explanatory and Analytical: Understanding the Contexts, Core, and Collective Outcomes of Action
- Social Mechanisms as Special Cases of Explanatory Sociology: Notes toward Systemizing and Expanding Mechanism-based Explanation within Sociology
- Social Mechanisms of Corruption: Analytical Sociology and Its Applicability to Corruption Research
- Neighbourhood Effects: Lost in Transition?
- Part II. Bridging the Gap with Quantitative Survey Research
- Social Mechanisms in Norm-relevant Situations: Explanations for Theft by Finding in High-cost, and Low-cost Situation
- Social Mechanisms and Empirical Research in the Field of Sociology of the Family: The Case of Separation and Divorce
- Contextualizing Cognitive Consonance by a Social Mechanisms Explanation: Moderators of Selective Exposure in Media Usage
- Part III. Experiments, Agent-Based Modeling, and Mixed Methods
- The Use of Field Experiments to Study Mechanisms of Discrimination
- Rational Laziness - When Time Is Limited, Supply Abundant, and Decisions Have to Be Made
- How the Mechanism of Dynamic Representation Affects Policy Change and Stability
- Opening the Black Box. How the Study of Social Mechanisms Can Benefit from the Use of Explanatory Mixed Methods
- A Methodological Outlook on Causal Identification and Empirical Methods for the Analysis of Social Mechanism
- Authors
